Vantagens
My self-catering complex has 12 cottages available for holidays & for short-term rentals, so was needing a system to cope with stays between 2 days - 3+mths. After much research, I selected Elina and couldn't be more pleased. Elina, together with a new website, has increased my booking and we are now operating at over 95% occupancy April - October and 90% occupancy annually. The best features for me are -
- Automatic collection of (2-stage) payments. I now rarely have to get involved with this process.
- Ability to specify arrival/depart days, min/max length of stay (my standard set-up), & then open up a cottage for e.g. a much shorter-stay, or a `non-standard arrival day, to fill any gaps.
- Integration with Staah, so a 2 way integration with many appropriate OTAs
- Slick customer-facing booking-engine gives a clear booking process. Branded to look like my own website, including URL (with SSL certification).
- Very flexible & easy to use promotions tool.
- `Guest Lounge is also a great feature and should be a real USP, as many providers don't offer this. Has contributed to making compliance with GDPR easy, as guests can view their personal data held.
- Continually upgrading & revitalising system, which is very reassuring.
- Customer service I know it has been said in previous reviews, the support has been fantastic. Good (although could be better) user guides and how-to videos also.
Desvantagens
- Would be good to have a mobile-responsive system, so that working off-site on an iPad, or iPhone is easier.
- The back-end property management system is looking a little dated and therefore doesn't reflect/promote the quality of the excellent functionality
- Lots of clicking between screens when making a reservation manually
- Marketing tool is not as swish as it could be.
As I understand it, there are plans to improve all/most of the above though, which would be great.
Fiona - thanks for the review. Really pleased we have another satisfied customer!
Vantagens
We particularly like that the back end management system is quite simple and easy to use and the booking calendar has become invaluable. We've used other systems in the past which were more complicated however this suited out needs much more as it's not overcomplicated - it just does what it needs to do well.
The on boarding training and ongoing support is also very good. When we had our initial training it was very thorough and we felt we had a good understanding of how to use the system and also how to make it work for us. When we have any questions or problems they are dealt with quickly and the support team are helpful and friendly and know their product. Again this is very different from past experiences!
Desvantagens
There are some elements of the accounting which need improvement as it doesn't cope very well when a booking is shortened. As a serviced apartment operator we take payment in advance and this is a problem we've found with a lot of systems.
Alexandra - thank you for your review. Pleased to hear that Elina is easy to use and the booking calendar has become invaluable for your business.
What can I say, in the digital revolution there are so many companies offering the next best thing in property management systems that it can become a headache choosing the right software for you. All I can say is with Elina - there is no more blurred vision, the software offers exactly what we require, tailored to our needs, providing us with the best information about our guests and allowing us to be in touch with them via their incredible marketing platform before they stay with us, during and afterwards. We have been using the system for over 2 years now and can honestly say that their service is second to none, providing a great concierge service both via email and over the telephone, we couldn't ask for anything more Elina & the team really are our skilled partners in the digital age of hospitality, thank you all
Vantagens
Evrything, the ease of use, clever marketing, pricing platforms that work, this system really works for trying to take some % back off the OTA's
Desvantagens
the fact that we didn't go ahead sooner.
Craig - thank you for the superb review! Really thrilled to hear Elina has been the best move in tech you have made!
We have worked with other PMS products in our hotels the past - (some of them from name brands) - but Elina is so much better and at a very competitive price.
Their "hands on" management style and excellent customer service is very reassuring for us as owners, and for our staff.
Vantagens
As owners we like to be able to monitor the business, day to day. Elina gives us lots of options to accomplish just that. Elina is reliable and the staff love the functionallity and efficiency. We have had the software in our hotel for 5 years now, and never experienced a problem.
Desvantagens
Over the years we have requested that Elina added some features that we felt were missing, and this was promptly done and is now an integral part of the software. A good PMS is never "static", but needs to be in constant development in partnership with the users to keep up with the ever changing market.
After trying some other Property Management Software we came across Elina. This is one of the best multi-Property management software on the market. It totally changed our lives and we were finally able to manage our own properties stress free. The software is easy to use, offers channel manager synchronisation along with the payment gateway and accounting software.
Siggi & Jeff have been a great source of help and information and are always willing to take time to help and explain. They are passionate about what they do and are constantly improving the features to make the software better and to cater for the evolving market.
We also got a brand new website built by Vestibule Solutions which is also another branch of Elina.
Matteo and his team did an excellent job custom designing our website.
Vantagens
Work flow - offers a well designed booking engine
connectivity with Channel Manager
Elina Concierge Team - Great customer support and constantly adding new improvements
Good value for money
Desvantagens
None
Emmanuel - thanks for the superb review. Really pleased to hear Elina has made operations easier for your business. Highly appreciate it!
The Elina software allows me to run my business smarter, saving money on administration staff, saving time on manual processes and automates our banking and charging processes.
Vantagens
It becomes a central place for all our guest information. We know all our bookings, guest details and invoicing are to hand. When I took time out to review how time we were spending on manual processes, I realised that using Elina, which can do these tasks for us would save a lot of time. Automation has become a priority so we can free up to spend on growing our business.
Desvantagens
Because it is a large shift from not using any software to selecting a dedicated serviced apartment product like Elina, the most challenging element was committing the time to manage the change process. This has been made easier by the help and support of the Elina team. We changed to Sagepay payment gateway to work with Elina. It would have been great if Worldpay was integrated.
Carly - thank you for making time to review Elina. We really appreciate your kind feedback.
Vantagens
This suite aims to offer you a comprehensive package, an all in one solution for your hotel needs.
They offer a lot of features and if you consider how many they are and how costly they can be if you purchase them separately one by one, the price is not even bad.
They make constant improvements and they keep everything in order. being an old time customer, however, over the years I have witnessed many slow downs and server issues that took time to resolve.
When they embark in a major improvement, that can also affect your productivity, because things do not go always well at the first take
If all the functionalities that they offer worked as promised, this suite would be a great tool, however it is more likely that they will not go beyond a certain level of efficiency, because they are too many, too difficult to work together at a deep level, and subject to continuous change from market innovations
It would be betterif your expectations are limited, if you have a small property with simple routines to manage, a simple calendar, rates that don't change too high or low, promotions that don't promote too much, etc.
They also have a small website development agency that is managed with taste, and that i have appreciated even more than the booking engine itself.
Desvantagens
The software has its pros and cons as I have already said, you can get the pros without taking the cons onboard.
What I find was really bad is customer service.
I don't complain too often, but the last time I did - and I believe it was for a right reason - they eventually deleted the ticket itself and dropped it
I am learning the hard way, that software developers really don't have any knowledge of customer care; they just sit on their chair all day with their nose on the keyboard and in the end you have to accept what they give you.
First thing, ,if for any reason you don't like what you get, it is entirely your problem. They don't seem to care,
Well, in spite of 8 years I am happy to have found the strenght to move to a different provider. it took me a big effort, but I am very happy to have done it
After working with the Elina system in a previous role, I did not hesitate to choose the PMS system once again. It is a very intuative platform & perfectly suited to our business. Siggi & the team provide excellent support & actively encourage feedback. They are very good at listening to our suggestions & implementing new features to meet our needs. Would not hesitate to recommend!
Vantagens
They listen to our needs & implement changes/updates to acheieve this in a good time frame.
Desvantagens
The system sometimes has a few glitches, but are resolved quickly. Also it is sometimes hard to get hold of the support team (but i understand it is a small team!)
Oliver - thank you for the review. Pleased to hear Elina helps with your business needs.
Elina is at the forefront of our daily operations and efficiently manages our hotels. Constantly evolving and introducing new features such as the I-POS integration - which we love!
The design with bold, bright orange colours are cool and user friendly. I could not imagine our two hotels running without Elina and would recommend the software to anyone who is looking for an innovative, user friendly and efficient way to run their business.
Vantagens
flexibility, pretty much paperless concept, integration with other softwares, continuing evolvement , great customer service
Desvantagens
n/a
Daria - thank for your review. Happy to hear that Elina helps make your daily operations easier.
Total property management functionality and ease of use and all data required to efficiently operate our business.
Vantagens
The system is very user friendly, quick to pick up and functionality wise has many features that are tailored to our needs and more. It can be accessed on mobiles and tablets and laptops anywhere in the world which is ideal for our needs.
Desvantagens
Nothing really. There have been sometimes when the system runs slow, this was mainly at upgrade times.
Iqi - thank you for your kind review. Pleased to hear that Elina has helped you with your total property management functionality running efficiently.
We started our serviced apartments business from scratch in 2015 and would not have been able to do so without "Elina", our PMS of choice.
I can highly recommend having a partner that offers you a state of the art, responsive design website with a very easy to use CMS as well the perfectly matching hotel software.
You can either learn how to use the software by following the detailed online guides with commented videos on every topic, or have a personal training with the experts from Vestibule marketing, the company behind the brand "Elina".
While choosing the best company to work with, reliability was one of the keys for us. Elina works as a web frontend in your browser and all the maintenance, updates, etc. is done for you on the server side by Vestibule.
For your homepage they will handle the SSL certificate renewal process for you to ensure a secured connection with the guest.
The Elina team also provided us with important information and contacts to help us choose the best partners to work with in the online booking process on external platforms, like the matching OTAs for our kind of business, the channel manager (multiple channel managers are possible with Elina) and payment gateway.
In case you need more detailed information on some tasks, the Elina Concierge team is always there for you on the phone hotline and responds promptly to emails.
We started out with 8 serviced apartments and today we have over 100 beds in 2 locations available in Vienna.
Elina will suit your needs from managing just a few rooms to multiple locations with many different room/apartment types and bedding options.
After over a year of experience with Elina I can say it was the best choice we could have made.
Christoph - thanks for the superb review! Thrilled to hear using Elina has been the best choice you have made!
To permit know rnakings and comments abput SW´s
Vantagens
Easy to use and operate. Great support to improve Sales Incomes and Operations. So friendly to set up and manage different type of properties (sizes, beds, prices, availabilities among others). Features as marketing tools, booking engine, distribution channels management and BI reports are really usefull to manage in the best way properties and their potential to generate profit and value to business.
Desvantagens
Implementation of "local" on line payment platforms has to be faster in order to start operating with the entire operative platform and features from the beginning
Ricardo - thank you for your review. Pleased to hear Elina has become a great value to your business.
Too many to mention.
Vantagens
- this is a fully integrated software - PMS - linking to various different channel managers, payment gateways.
- good booking engine
- mostly everything is can be automated
- very good support team - both through email and phone
- support team know the industry well and provide not just technical support - but real value-add to your business
Desvantagens
Nothing significant. On rare occasions response from support can be a bit delayed when they are busy.
Anand - thanks and it's a plasure working with you and the team at Club Living
This software is the perfect match for all serviced apartment, extended stay or holiday rental providers. You can work absolutely retroactive. Full integration of a channel manager possible.
Developement on demand negotiable. You can get your website hosted and designed by the same company as well as a brand new IBE
Vantagens
-100% retroactively usable
-super fast support team
-easy to manage and administrate
-own IBE directly from the same company
frequently requested feature will be developed with out any fees for the customer
Desvantagens
I really can't see any cons here...
okay some small details but this is only because of my personal preferences and habits
Robert - thanks for the view. Pleased to hear the 100% positive feedback on Elina PMS!
Vantagens
Speaking as an accountant who uses the system for reporting purposes:
On the whole it is easy to use
Reports can be exported to Excel
Customer service team is responsive and helpful
Desvantagens
Speaking as an accountant who uses the system for reporting purposes:
I think the weakest part of the system is the debtor reporting. I am told that this is being addressed and look forward to seeing the changes.
Suzanne - thank you for your review. Pleased to hear Elina is easy to use for your reporting.
We have been using Elina for 3 months now and it has helped us scale up and double our apartment portfolio from 6 to 12.
Elina has enabled us to systemise many parts of our business including Check in management, housekeeping management, guest payment and rate adjusting with ease.
We have found the system very easy to navigate around and is supported by easy to follow training videos. If the videos fail the Elina Concierge service is outstanding. Email support response is usually within the same day and any bugs or issues are resolved in a very timely manner.
We had tried and tested some other PMS's, nothing has come close to this for our current and future requirements.
We highly recommend Elina, save yourself time, there's no need to shop around. Elina does it all!
Vantagens
Easy to navigate, looks great and has comprehensive functionality.
Desvantagens
We're still not using it to it's full potential. Also the marketing suite does not deliver our requirements.
Hi Mike - thanks for your review of Elina. We appreciate the kind words and take the feedback on integrations and costing on board. Something we are working on currently
This is really nice software to use!. Easy to navigate and really helpful and friendly support - Siggi is amazing! Also great that you can work with Elina if there is something that you want to develop they do listen and try and put this into production to constantly develop the software.
Vantagens
It looks nice and feels nice to use and easy to navigate.
Desvantagens
Adding on 'add on's, cancellation process
Charlotte - thanks for the review. Glad to hear Elina has been a super user-friendly software for your business.
We are all so grateful to Elina team, they are always there to help, explain and they listen to every need, every idea is important! From marketing support, to online new features to improve the service thank you Siggi, Christopher, Eline and Jeff. Keep up the good work!!
Vantagens
Easy to manage, capable to fulfill every need for small or bigger companies.
Desvantagens
n/a
Sonia - thank you for the review. Glad to hear Elina has helped fulfil your business needs.
Vantagens
Siggi specifically is 5* and has been hugely valuable in helping us to get the most out of the system and properly structure our processes and procedures.
The system integrates well with our website and provides a slick booking service to our customers (and I have heard this is being improved even further).
Desvantagens
Making some changes can feel clunky and manual, but I have seen a glimpse of Elina 5 and it looks fantastic. There are pending changes to the customer portal too, which will be hugely valuable.
There is often a cost attached to making needed changes, guess this is typical of most technology providers though.
Claire - thank you for your review. Glad to hear that Elina has become a valuable system to your business and its needs.
A booking engine solution that cut out the need to constantly update OTA websites. An easy to navigate platform that empowers the user to take full control of their bookings.
Vantagens
Elina certainly saves time when it comes to updating rates and availability. There are many features that give you full control of your bookings and the platform is easy to navigate. There are many tutorial videos that are very informative. The support team is very helpful and always there to lend a helping hand.
Thank you Reuben for reviewing elina
Vantagens
Very detailed reporting functionality, 2 month occupancy calendar view, "staff lounge" overview
Desvantagens
Takes a few days to get used to but once you do you'll see that it has great functionality and is actually not that difficult to use
Thank you for the positive review! Glad to hear Elina has helped you with the overall easy functionality within your business.
Overal a great customer experience with an excellent concierge team to help you with any teething problems when you start using the system.
Vantagens
Comprehensive set of functions and reporting. Professional looking invoices which give my customers more confidence in using my services. The booking engine links easily to my website, payment gateway and channel manager. User friendly training suite for reference especially at the beginning. An excellent solution for growth and upscaling your business for the future, without the headache of moving to another provider which has more functionality, because Elina in my opinion caters for small, medium or large size operations.
Desvantagens
The deposit rules can be a bit riged and sensitive to amendments to booking which may lead to customers being over charged on occasions. Not always easy to correct invoices without the help from Elina Concierge
Jany - thank you so much for reviewing us. Pleased to hear that Elina has helped make your overall customer experience great!
Very helpful staff.
Training was great, all the staff really enjoyed it.
I would recommend Elina to anyone.
Vantagens
We are a multi-functional site, offering self-catering Accommodation for Rentals, holiday ownership and also exchange purposes. Elina can offer the flexibility to handle our owners and guests at the same time.
Another must for us was the consecutive availability tracker, which works excellent.
Desvantagens
Still waiting for a couple of add on's, like being able to edit when an owner owns.
Des - thank you for your fantastic review. Glad to hear your extremely positive experience you have had with the Elina system and our staff.
We've worked with Siggi and his team since almost day 1. Now 3 sites later and growing they've been there for the whole journey... (With lots of added features too)!
Vantagens
customer service
Desvantagens
some areas that could be developed e.g linking into our EPOS system still not quite there yet.
Justin - thanks for your review. Glad to hear the positive feedback, highly appreciated.
Vantagens
Elina is a system easy to use. Eventhough you need to familiarize yourself with the different functionalities once this is done you can use it on a simple way for your day-to-day job. Also being part of the system development is exciting - the support team is always open for ideas.
Desvantagens
Working in a structured Serviced Apartment Business I am still missing certain reports and functions but am aware that the system is still developing.
Christiane - thank you for making time to review elina. We always appreciate the ideas and input from Brera.